BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday unveiled a major austerity package aimed at finding savings of more than €85 billion by 2014, but it was immediately criticized by the opposition and trade unions, which pledged that they would unite to fight cutbacks they claimed would undermine the country’s generous social welfare system. “The savings offer no perspective whatsoever,” said Michael Sommer, leader of the German Federation of Trade Unions.
Speaking after two days of intense talks in the Chancellery, Mrs. Merkel said the savings program — the largest in the country’s postwar history — was the only way for Germany to “stand on its legs.”
She said the cuts were designed to bring the…